Well There's Your Problem | Episode 91: The Chicago - New York Electric Air Line Railroad

[@skylermathewson1203]

As a former employee of Sears Holdings, I wholeheartedly support putting the head of Sears Holdings in charge of Amazon.

[@ZealothPL]

That's even worse than "may you live in interesting times" damn

[@skylermathewson1203]

@@ZealothPL I'd like to add that I only worked there for eight months.

[@joecummings1260]

Kind of funny, but when I was a kid in the sixties and seventies Sears was actually a pretty good solid middle-class job. It was all Union, even the trucking was done by signal delivery and the drivers were all represented by Teamsters Local 107

[@skylermathewson1203]

@@joecummings1260 I certainly don't doubt it! They tried to compete with Walmart with an underhanded campaign if memory serves and that led them to disaster. Love that the teamsters were involved though. Unions are the working-class's best friend.

[@angus4202]

@@joecummings1260 made good garden tractors too

[@iamjustkiwi]

Holy fuck. The dystopia of someone's last words being "amazon won't let us leave" needs to be a rallying cry of some kind. That really broke my heart.

[@Bobbias]

Jesus Christ, that is fucking disgusting.

[@RoamingAdhocrat]

If this had come out yesterday, I'd have called for a moment's silence in their memories in this morning's We're Moving Everything To Amazon Web Services Yaaaaay meeting

[@ericmagnuson3006]

It's not a new thing, sadly. Triangle Shirtwaist being the best example to come to mind

[@GaldirEonai]

@@ericmagnuson3006 Except the Triangle fire led to improvements. This won't, because Amazon has more power than the sweatshop owners of the early 20th century ever dreamed of.

[@murciadoxial8056]

I legitimately thought that was just a meme image for levity... I- I got nothing man.

[@emilyadams3228]

In 1946, my granddad read in the paper that the Gary streetcars were about to end, so he took his older daughter & son to ride one. They were 8 & 7, respectively (my mom was only 1, so she stayed home). They went to 45th & Grant, the end of the former Gary & Southern (abandoned from Grant to Crown Point in 1933), & rode to Gary & back. The motorman was so impressed that my granddad took the kids for their only ride on the doomed line, that on the 45th St. bit, he gave each of them a turn at the controller. They both remembered this for the rest of their lives.

[@thestarlightalchemist7333]

I hope that you and your children can still ride the South Shore every once in a while to relive at least some of those memories, that would be awesome.

[@Deimonik1]

I want to like this but it's on 69 likes, nice

[@masonturner0]

The story of how one man’s vision for high speed rail was defeated by a creek in Indiana

[@emilyadams3228]

They really were up the creek. I wonder if anyone saw it & said "Oh, beans!"

[@maybemablemaples2144]

One beta rich NFT boi vs chad Indianan creek filled with sand.

[@notakirakarakaza2118]

Ah yes, a tale as old as time

[@chaosof99]

A new phrase that strikes fear into the core of my being: "Seven upside-down circular saws".

[@RedWurm]

Honestly, I thought that was the worrying part, right up to the moment they mentioned the office chair...

[@synthgal1090]

and a partridge in a pear tree

[@pastell6395]

I always love Safety Thirds that opens to a cold shot of a single piece of equipment. Edit: literally screamed when they said SEVEN saws

[@huntermorgan4201]

That's Safety Eighth, as spots one through seven are taken by one circular saw each!

[@DiamondKingStudios]

I saw the comments before I got to that part of the video and still lost it when they got to it.

[@stiltpuppy]

I'm gonna protest Alice classifying Arwen as a "lesser known character", but in that spirit, I love to get my shit destroyed by Tropical Storm Bill the Pony.

[@ClaudiaNW]

Storm Glorfindel Storm Haldir Storm Beregond Storm Old Man Willow Storm Quickbeam Storm Old Fatty Lumpkin

[@gearandalthefirst7027]

@@ClaudiaNW I think Old Man Willow has probably already been a victim of one of these storms lmao

[@DeusExMockinYa]

"we get a lot of Safety Thirds from theater people" is the most validated I have ever felt in getting a minor in theater

[@emilyadams3228]

They won't get them for much longer. It's only a stage.

[@eleSDSU]

@@emilyadams3228 nah, they'll keep getting hurt, some people will do anything to get into a cast.

[@mysteryshrimp]

I was struck by falling set pieces twice before the age of 18. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is far more accurate than most people will realize.

[@ThePadawan3]

> "Are you alright?" < "No." I believe that's the most aggressive a British person has been in the history of time. Truly amazing.

[@RoamingAdhocrat]

*to someone they consider a peer

[@LucasL512]

More like 'y'aight?'

[@xmlthegreat]

The most aggressive a British person has been to a white. To the non whites... Buddy, there's a lot of stuff there.

[@Jablicek]

@@xmlthegreat Even to whites. The country my family's from has been occupied by the British for over 800 years.

[@xmlthegreat]

​@@JablicekIreland or Scotland?

[@oafhauohguoihgakds5151]

"The nine-sided barn is south of a rectangular barn. The barn has nine sides and is two stories tall." From Wikipedia's Article on The Marion Ridgeway Polygonal Barn

[@StaticDisplay]

When Alice first read it off I thought it was the "polygamal barn" and I did not know if it was for marrying multiple farm animals or what.

[@TalesOfWar]

@@StaticDisplay I thought she said that too! haha!

[@Helenthecat]

Notably, "The Marion Ridgeway Polygonal Barn located in LaPorte County on the southern edge of LaPorte, Indiana, is a MULTI-SIDED barn." Unlike your typical single-sided barn.

[@nothanksguy]

@@Helenthecat 🤣

[@Lily-Sinful]

the Marion Ridgeway Polygonal Barn is my new favourite wikipedia page, on account of it's a historical landmark without any description of *why* its historically significant. feels like a pretty big thing to leave out of the article, imo

[@GarethDennisTV]

YES

[@falloutghoul1]

Check out Frog Station.

[@CassandraForAGlobalTroy]

Welcome to Well, Your Problem is There - a podcast about slides with engineering disasters.

[@fernandomarques5166]

Did you mean: this channel on april, 1st

[@vilheimtheunsinkable9646]

Well to Welcome, Your Problem Their's - An engineering disaster about slides, with a podcast

[@realcanadian96]

Someone needs to make a knockoff podcast with this exact name

[@MrTaxiRob]

re: storm shelters You can pretty much guarantee that Amazon gets whatever zoning and building code variances they ask for, right along with all the tax incentives they receive that come directly from the carcasses of their own workers.

[@elorani1714]

Today, an 'airline' is a company that operates air transport services, and this makes intuitive sense because we associate it with airplanes flying through the air. But, now I'm thinking these types of companies probably got called airlines because of the older definition of 'airline' used here - the direct path between two points. It's fascinating how older linguistic connections like this can kind of disappear over time.

[@emilyadams3228]

Given that the New York Central was run by Cornelius Vanderbilt's son after his death, you might say the NYC was, for the time, a Chicago-New York... Heir Line. tee hee

[@Dong_Harvey]

Yes it is quite queer indeed

[@chrisweston6908]

Sung to 12 days of Christmas… Seven upside down circular saws, six sheets of plywood ……… and an unpaid intern on a rolling desk chaaaaaaiiiir!

[@samanthaamburgey4128]

Speaking of the tornado: That same night, at the auto plant I worked at, we were told to shelter in the area of the plant we stored all the auto glass. Yeah. Then management decided to ignore the second tornado warning. Great place to work. /s

[@ThebearCornal]

Quit man, if you can. Those fuckers are trying to kill you and get away with it.

[@grmpEqweer]

😳

[@samanthaamburgey4128]

@@ThebearCornal I would, but I'm basically trapped here because I need the health insurance. Part of me also wants to stick it out and see if I can unionize these bastards.

[@eleSDSU]

@@samanthaamburgey4128 keep up the good fight ✊🏼, but be safe, we need all of us.

[@lucillerrose]

I loved this episode of "Well There's Your La Porte", a podcast about La Porte, Indiana, with slides

[@napalmholocaust9093]

The constitution still abides slavery if you have been lawfully convicted of a crime. It starts with community service and ends with 80% of the domestically produced washing machines. "If we don't employ slavery we can't be competitive." -guy stepping into his Bentley.

[@WulfgarOpenthroat]

Slavery was never abolished in the US, it was just restricted to 'bad people' convicted of breaking the law, much of which outlaws things that have no victims, and is both written and applied unequally, by class and race. On the same subject the overwhelming majority of theft in the US is wage theft; funny how your boss never goes to jail for playing games with tips and pay, at most they just face a fine and are forced to pay you what they owe, but the working class and minorities can have their life righteously destroyed or ended over $20.

[@CosRacecar]

And also funny how corporations get all the benefits of personhood, but are rarely held accountable for any of their crimes. We need corporate prison. When they are convicted of stealing their employees wages, the board goes to prison and the company is not allowed to do business for a while. Not this "pay back exactly the amount it can be proven that they stole and pinky swear not to get caught doing it again" bs.

[@grmpEqweer]

@@CosRacecar If they kill people through repeated and deliberate malfeasance, they should have their corporate charter revoked.😈 Commit enough corporate murder, get the corporate version of capital punishment. Edit: this legal action did happen in the early 1800's.

[@j2simpso]

No one follows the constitution! The second amendment is ignored in the US! Don’t believe me? Try carrying an open bottle of beer on the streets of Philly past a police officer. Chances are they’ll write you a ticket for open carry. Well, last time I checked open carry was entrenched in the second amendment of the constitution. Perhaps Americans can learn a thing or two from our freedom loving ancestors, the Brits where not only is open carry allowed, it’s encouraged!

[@grmpEqweer]

@@j2simpso Not sure if serious.

[@ashleyhamman]

That text conversation in the news segment is honestly one of the saddest images I've ever seen. Mass death is of course horrifying in most-all contexts, but that text encapsulates the personal touch in a way few things do.

[@chaseman113]

37:20 holy crap, just imagine your sitting there by the beach and a single trolley just blasts through time and space at 80 mph on jointed rails.

[@WesternOhioInterurbanHistory]

this was normal on many interurban lines Such as the Cincinnati and Lake Erie, Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee, Chicago South Shore and South Bend, Philadelphia and Western and the Lehigh Valley Transit, all operated at 80mph+ speeds on many of their sections of track.

[@josephknight3066]

@@WesternOhioInterurbanHistory the south shore still exist

[@WesternOhioInterurbanHistory]

@@josephknight3066 not as an interurban really, but more like soulless commuter line #46 these days

[@josephknight3066]

@@WesternOhioInterurbanHistory untrue , it still has a interurban vibe. It's getting an investment and it has a soul. The SSL is my baby

[@WesternOhioInterurbanHistory]

@@josephknight3066 they just removed the streetrunning

[@Mergatroid]

I swear y’all always upload on days when I have 7 hour train rides on Amtrak. Thank you for giving me something to watch on the train.

[@drakinkoren]

Hear that guys? That's 5 hours more content required per week! 😅

[@benoitbvg2888]

My commute is only 1h15 😔I won't even be able to finish the épisode...

[@pleasant_asymmetry]

I had an 8 hour ride the other day but the on-train wifi wouldn't have been good enough to watch a nearly two-hour video😔

[@FalgaiaRT]

why on earth would you listen to a podcast that frequently covers train disasters on a train

[@drakinkoren]

@@FalgaiaRT they like to live life on the edge, knowing that at any moment, a cascade of corporate profit driven failures could turn them into a liquid homogenate.

[@ch3burashka]

1:01:15 "Italian Americans" "Whopping rate" I couldn't have been the only one that heard that.

[@emilyadams3228]

You weren't...tee hee.

[@VeggieRice]

WOPing rate

[@dascommissar5264]

I would pay for a windows screensaver that randomly generated rail lines with tiny locomotives driving on them…

[@deeznoots6241]

One day Alice, one day, STRAIGHT TO CHICAGO

[@TiagoJoaoSilva]

*hit it*

[@Mercgribern]

As a former employee of follett higher ed who inherited Sears Holdings leadership I also support this managerial shakeup

[@hideflen6078]

@1:34:57 okay nothing has more driven home the "college lecture" atmosphere of this podcast (and its slides) by the SHIT ASS flash-lit photo of another photo in a glossy-paged book. I love you, never change.

[@nowake]

1:35:30 the company I work for does material for railroad grade crossings - this comes up so much with roadways over superelevated double track. Project designers think we as the manufacturer have got some special ace up our sleeve on how to get fast cars over fast, curved tracks. Barring any hydraulically-operated appurtenances that switch between vehicle/rail traffic, there isn't a geometric way to solve a geometric problem. You either have to slow down the rail traffic and get rid of the superelevation, or leave it in place and slow down the vehicle traffic. They want to do neither. When I start proposing 100 yards of cut/fill on the roadway section or 1/2 mile of grading for the railway tracks, they start to get the picture.

[@john.m.shukites]

Two things on this podcast you don't want to hear: Justin say dates and times and, as a Southern Illinoisan, the God Damn News being in your area.

[@grmpEqweer]

_I feel you_ -Houston, Texas. 🌀🌪️🌊

[@bchin4005]

Excellent episode as usual, folks! As a side note, being a several decades veteran of the scenic construction trade in the arts, when Justin got to part of Safety Third and read "installed multiple circular saws..." I had a visceral and jolting physical reaction. That has to be one of the worst ideas I've ever heard, and I've heard so many in my time that ideas like that have a term "Dr. Bad Plan" in the circles I run in. The fact that the plan mentioned in the episode just kept getting worse is quite simply astounding. The wunderkind that came up with that should be banned from breathing.

[@grmpEqweer]

"Dr Badplan." Gonna remember that. That's such a widely useful term.

[@bchin4005]

@barnabyjoy exactly. The sunk cost fallacy leads people down some twisted paths. An unpaid intern was even mentioned. Where I come from they would have been handed a cutting jig as you described, a pencil, tape measure and a saw and told "well, guess what you're doing until it's done."

[@bchin4005]

@@grmpEqweer I highly encourage you in its use. Some common phrases it can be used in are "Looks like Dr. Bad Plan has reared his ugly head and struck again" or "Who invited Dr. Bad Plan to the party?"

[@grmpEqweer]

@@bchin4005 I was thinking more like, "again, I find I'm working for Dr. Badplan."

[@bchin4005]

@@grmpEqweer yup, that works :D

[@HelixFlame33]

NOW THIS IS PODCASTING!

[@RoamingAdhocrat]

try spinning, that's a good trick

[@j2simpso]

I'm sorry folks but you got the analysis completely wrong here. The reason why the Chicago New York Electric Air Line railroad didn't work out was because the engineers didn't build a big tunnel to have it all underground. Had they done that they could've pulled an Elon Musk and built a Hypeloop there. Instead, they focused on above ground surface transportation and got beat out by Delta Air Ways which gave them COVID. As simple as that!

[@HamSaladtv]

You had me for awhile ngl

[@rawbebaba]

Well that and you forgot about all the cultural Marxism

[@TalesOfWar]

No no, you're wrong. It's because they used trains instead of pods.

[@j2simpso]

@@TalesOfWar uhh duh you shouldn’t use pods for transport. Otherwise kids will try eating them in the latest transport pod challenge!

[@ZealothPL]

RGB leds weren't discovered yet...

[@RoamingAdhocrat]

"There's no straights on this thing" - Gareth Dennis on HS2

[@willmiles7978]

"You can get air in trains. Which is good!"

[@theryanbard]

Congratulations Gareth on becoming the second* 3-time WTYP champion *edited to atone for Joe Kassabian erasure

[@lukewest7216]

I think they've had Joe Kassabian on 3 times already (Salang, Armored Trains, Halifax)

[@PobortzaPl]

Don't do the Turkish solution to the Armenian presence. Like never.

[@MrJimheeren]

@@PobortzaPl Joe will probably do it one day on Lions led by Donkeys. Just to give the world some extra trauma

[@Theoddert]

Who could have imagined that the galaxy-brain'd idea of "just make it go strait" could be defeated by "the overwhelming expense of building 1 million bridges and tunnels whenever there is so much as a dip, instead of just going around it"?

[@Jobother]

i guess he hasn't played Transport Fever where that becomes incredibly obvious until you're late in the game and have just billions of dollars you don't know what to do with

[@a.p.2356]

Oh man, my mind immediately went "fuck, they're gonna do the table saw out of a circular saw thing aren't they," and then they blew it out of the park by grafting SEVEN of them together into a nightmarish mechanically separated intern generating machine.

[@danielkorladis7869]

how to reduce an unpaid intern into a soup-like homogenate

[@d_kmo]

Certified adeptus mechanicus moment

[@DeadWhiteButterflies]

Gareth be like, "I'm holding the train set, it's my turn to talk!" 😁

[@Zachthesloth]

"I'm sorry- do you think there's something funny about the downtown Laporte historic district?" Yes ma'am. Yes we really fucking do.

[@f_youtubecensorshipf_nazis]

I cancelled my amazon prime because of that. I can't morally ignore the evils of these people anymore. I would rather do without than support this system.

[@themigmadmarine]

Man, please have more episodes with Gareth, he's great.

[@leaffinite2001]

Hes a very natural addition. Id actually say this about quite a few of the guests (they tend to be quite good) but he could be a fourth member and fit right in

[@devinfaux6987]

...you know, I would watch the heck out of Justin, Alice and Liam trying to play Railroads Online together.

[@mcarp22]

Is there a rule that says something like “the more precision they add to the time stamps, the longer the podcast takes to get through slides.” ?

[@joshplaysdrums2143]

Always hurts to see the Lackawanna cutoff :( My hometown has a spot of abandoned track and tunnel from it that everyone just smokes pot at (based but I wish there was a train)

[@PeterBuvik]

Aren't they doing work to reopen the Lackawanna Cutoff.

[@joshplaysdrums2143]

@@PeterBuvik I think so! It's kinda fuzzy though from my knowledge. There's a KZbin channel just called "Lackawanna Cut-off" that gives updates and history on the project (I really need to catch up on it). I think there's always talk about opening it but it seems to be in purgatory lol

[@patrickmcneilly4293]

Hmm that sounds like the Roseville Tunnel aka Byram Ice Cave. Am I correct on that?

[@joshplaysdrums2143]

@@patrickmcneilly4293 Wow! Small world! Yup that's it

[@randythetool]

this isn't longer than a single marvel cinematic universe film and i think that's disgusting

[@off-labelbotanist5355]

I feel like a lack of wanting to consider contour is a fundamental problem of the modern age. I explain this as a part of hydrology in farm design and it takes a while for the penny to drop.

[@Kapi.23]

Kerf is the loss of material when you cut wood due to the width of the blade. If you cut a sheet of plywood of 1sq meter in half, you won't end up with 2 pieces of 50cms x 1mt. If more woodworking folks would listen to the podcast, you'll be swimming in mails for Safety third. Kickback it's a bitch. I had 2 incidents during this year, but in a table saw. One made me call it a day, I nearly lost a couple of fingers. (I'm just a woodworking enthusiast)

[@hedleybutler9706]

A family friend was a framer and he almost lost his arm. It was like 90% detached between the shoulder & elbow😬 Power saws are fucking wild

[@IlkkaVuoristo]

I've never worked with a carpenter who had all their original parts.

[@bchin4005]

@@IlkkaVuoristo those are the kind of carpenters you don't want to work with

[@thekidkrow]

The best is when you work in a carpentry adjacent trade or trade that involves carpentry, and your employer expects team leads to pay for their own blades. I only have ~89% of my right ring finger from a full blade binding on me from how dull it was. One of these days I'm fucking bailing and sending OSHA the ever growing collection of safety violations I've got.

[@Kapi.23]

@@hedleybutler9706 i just began woodworking as a hobby last year, during the pandemic. A few years ago, i had an accident, i fell on my bike and torn a shoulder ligament, so i needed surgery. Since i was riding my bike to work, i had coverage, and i was hospitalized at a "workers hospital" (this is a place that treats any type of job related injuries). So, the guy on the bed next to mine, was about my age, and he was a furniture maker at a hotel. The blade guard was removed by his supervisor in order to acomodate a large piece. He cut his hand in half, and at the time he was in his 4th or 5th surgery, he had a horrible scar, and his arm was wraped in a portable hyperbaric chamber. Everytime i turn on my machines, i remember that guy

[@duncanferguson449]

Amazon mostly runs the store at break-even so as to bankrupt everyone else, it’s that AWS money that keeps things going. Even the Sears guy would have a hard time fucking over that revenue stream (and it’d take half the net down with it)

[@MrJstorm4]

He could start selling off crap that makes modest profits.

[@VeggieRice]

I could mess up some government contract bids and tank that in three quarters

[@MannoMax]

Holy fucking shit, i have a nice safety 3rd that involves a 26 ton excavator, a demolition claw, an angle grinder, and some west german demo guys that very much underestimated the amount of rebar that existed in east german buildings.

[@Turidus]

Send it in, I want to hear that story!

[@MannoMax]

@@Turidus Where do i submit it to ?

[@Turidus]

@@MannoMax I do not know! Tried googling it, but wasn't able to find anything.

[@Cathemera]

I lived in Elgin for a while, and the only indication that the Chicago, Aurora, and Elgin Railroad ever existed there are some buildings in the old downtown that were built with really sharp angles along the tracks. Everything else was all torn out or paved over. Terribly disappointing.

[@nowake]

There's a fb group I'm part of with some characters who go out along the old R.O.W. with metal detectors and pull up old spikes, plates, insulators - one guy even has a section of 3rd rail he's brought home.

[@spofet]

Always love the atmospheric railway episode references.

[@anathematic5083]

I love how a theatre department didn't have the budget for fake lapboard, but they had enough materials to fabricate the 7 circular saw powered rube goldberg death trap to make fake lapboard

[@Skullair313]

This whole series of events unfolding in this episode episode sounds suspiciously like my first transport fever playthrough

[@redbasher636]

Storm Frodo: You will never see it coming apparently.

[@eleSDSU]

This season's F name is Franklin so I wouldn't worry about it coming any time soon xD

[@luciger_globus]

as someone who lives near Butler, Indiana - I really appreciate the distain Alice puts on the name every time she forces it through her lips.

[@ancientmaverick13]

Considering our nickname for it is But-tucky…

[@Eternalvonbismark]

Best episode ever I got to see a fellow engineer live the dream and exictedly talk about their vertical and horizintal alignements

[@IndomitableAde]

I don't think I've ever clicked a WTYP video faster. They had me at Chicago. I am from Gary and enjoy learning quirky regional history. This should be fun! After watching, ETA: I'd no idea Gary's old streetcar system would figure into the story. I remember there were still track remnants on 11th Avenue when I was a kid. I did suspect that a railroad project based out of Chicago with such a wordy name was probably a scam, so half right on that one. Also, Gareth absolutely should visit Coffee Creek. The watershed preserve is lovely.

[@ClaudiaNW]

Your hometown featured in Donoteat's Industries DLC video! "Gary, Indiana, Gary, not Louisiana, Paris, France, New York or Rome"

[@IndomitableAde]

@@ClaudiaNW I've added it to my playlist, thanks! I'd only seen the Franklin episodes on that channel. Good stuff!

[@aliceosako792]

Wouldn't a truly straight rail line between New York and Chicago - that is, one which ignores the curvature of the Earth - have to either tunnel a few hundred meters down, or else elevate a similar height up in the air on one end?

[@GarethDennisTV]

this is the galaxy brain pway design

[@stevendaleschmitt]

I saw the tornado carrying building debris from Sand Road only seconds after it hit the warehouse, it was about 50 feet wide. The building roof was made of corrugated sheet metal, styrofoam and plastic film which is still strewn for miles. The killed and injured were sheltered in a bathroom, when the walls collapsed on them. Whether it was a reinforced safe zone or not remains to be revealed.

[@grmpEqweer]

Ohhh. Bathrooms are generally somewhat safer due to the pipes in the walls. Guess they had a really flimsy build.

[@maybemablemaples2144]

@@grmpEqweer that literally doesn't surprise me....I hate this fucking country.

[@jsrodman]

This was the first safety third that I just stopped listening to midway through when we got to multiple circular saws getting mounted and I could not handle thinking about it anymore. I salute you and the writer of this letter. (edit typo)

[@GaldirEonai]

Every time they say "what did we learn from X" I'm picturing the ending scene of Burn After Reading...

[@ojami7370]

My friend works at world wide technology literally one of the other buildings in the same industrial park as the amazon warehouse and they weren't allowed to leave either but they were in a storm shelter.

[@iamjustkiwi]

I was JUST looking for something to listen to while I do my morning stuff. Thank you Allah and also maybe Jesus, and Liam, for the impeccable timing 🙏 Even better YAY GARETH, one of my favorite guests.

[@henrycurtis3652]

Allah, Jesus, and Liam. The Holy Trinity.

[@Dong_Harvey]

Hrmm, sus Pinkerton listening in..

[@AsbestosMuffins]

what a time, when you can build two competing interurbans, right next to each other, in the middle of nowhere

[@simplebastard6805]

Regarding Gareth's question at 40:40, NY Central's 20th Century Limited actually would have crossed through the Seneca Nation's Cattaraugus Territory; Lakeshore Limited runs the same route presently. As best I can tell the easement was probably first negotiated some time around 1850 when Buffalo and State Line Railroad was trying to build out to Erie PA.

[@Ingestedbanjo]

Exterior The roof is covered in wood shingles. There is an overhang, showing the rafters in the soffit area. The wall are covered with horizontal tongue-and-groove beveled siding. Corner boards at used where each wall section adjoins the next. The barn faces north and has a large sliding door located off center to the west on the lower level. There are long, narrow openings with operable wood shutters at each side of the wall section, with identical openings on the upper level. The upper level has a small hay door with a large hay dormer. The dormer has an out-swinging hay door with a hay pulley at the top. The dormer is capped by a steeply pitched gable roof with exposed rafters. The first side, described above, is followed by side two with its window and four-foot-wide door. Side three has another window next to a door, and there is a smaller hay door on the upper level, above the window. Side four contains another window and door pair, while side five has the door and then the window with a smaller hay door above. Side six is roughly parallel to the road, has the door and window and on the upper level is painted: DOOR PRAIRIE 1878 LaPorte, Indiana. Side seven and eight both have doors and windows. Side eight has an upper-level hay door above the window. Side nine contains the final door-and-window combination. The combination of windows and doors is said to give the barn its name: "Door Prairie Barn".[2] The name also is an associations with in LaPorte County, which means "Door." The county was named because of a natural "door" between the woods to the north and east and the prairie to the west and south. This section of the county is called Door Prairie. This doorway was a landmark on the Indian trail through the area. It became the site of Door Village. Interior The interior is an arrangement of pens. On the lower level, the north end of the barn has the main entrance. To the east is a permanent stairway to the upper level. Symmetrically from this northern bay are eight equally spaced stalls, each with a gate at the barn's center and containing a door and window on the outer wall. At each of the points of intersection of the inner stall walls are large posts that extend to an overhead beam, which braces the floor joists of the upper level. The center of the barn is left open for movement of animals. On the upper level, the bay to the east has a three-section grain bin. This bin corresponds to the size of the animal pen below and does not extend to the roof above. Each compartment has a grain chute from the upper to the lower level. A walkway provides access to the large hay doors and makes the moving of the hay and straw easier. Most of the upper level is open for the storage of hay and straw.

[@TiagoJoaoSilva]

There are exits to the North and the West > go west You are eaten by a grue

[@RoamingAdhocrat]

Now That's What I Call An Extended Lunchbreak

[@kiandocherty3589]

You can tell a guy truly is an expert on engineering when he has a posh Edinburgh style accent.

[@maximilianwimmer627]

just an FYI on the case of the AEG triple-pantograph train: 3 pantographs because it ran on 3-phase AC, I believe this was briefly shown in an old WTYP episode, but for the love of god I can't remember which one^^. Edit: Found it, Episode 59: Eschede Derailment (kzbin.info/www/bejne/d4PUnn2vgrSNqqM) @18:19

[@dkbmaestrorules]

Maybe the APT episode? 🤔 Kinda wild that they hadn't figured out that you can just put one of the phases through the rails lol

[@maximilianwimmer627]

@@dkbmaestrorules Was my first thought, too. Found it, Episode 59: Eschede Derailment @18:19. Unfortunately not a good advertising for our High Speed Rail. German train go fast, german train no longer go fast, german train kaputt.

[@gamesandstuff7966]

Hold up, I work at an Amazon FC. Those buildings fall over easy? Our building doesn't have a proper storm shelter either, just an area to go where there is less stuff to fall over. It was built like 3 years ago

[@mattkrier5856]

I've been on the jobsites and they loterally pour sheets of concrete, jack them up vertical, and then remove the jacks when the building is finished. If the roof is pulled off the walls a free to fall like dominoes

[@ChristopherHallett]

It was the Flying Scotsman. They shipped her to Australia when I was a wee laddie, and my whole family went to go see her steam across the country.

[@ericfischer8295]

ATMOSPHERIC RAILROAD!!! ATMOSPHERIC RAILROAD!!! ATMOSPHERIC RAILROAD!!!

[@eedtheatombomb]

Scenic carpenter here. I've been thinking of writing to the show for a long time but can't decide on the most heinous thing I've been a part of. Glad to see others are telling their tales of how insane this job is.

[@danielkorladis7869]

send all of the most heinous things

[@EngMadison]

In a previous job I did some weld inspection and material testing on some of these types of tilt up warehouses. A) God they seem cheap and flimsy. B) I've never seen an interior shelter/bunker. Unless it was installed after framing, roofing, and flooring. Nope.

[@JasTheMadTexan]

I can’t get over the fact that they talked about La Porte Indiana for so long without once mentioning Belle Gunness

[@joannalink6171]

I read that the CEO ran Sears into the ground because he was a diehard libertarian and insisted that all its departments compete with each other otherwise the whole company was too much like a state with centralized planning

[@pacificostudios]

Re: South Shore and Indiana Harbor -- the South Shore is the curving high-speed line -- the Indiana Harbor was and is a slow-speed freight railroad. But that's a 5 MPH crossing for sure. Today, the South Shore has a bridge here.

[@philliptrzcinski5243]

They were actually staging a performance of Seven Circular Saws for Seven Brothers.

[@michaelpineiro533]

Nationalize Amazon and Walmart, put them under the Department of Agriculture, call it -The Commune- SNAP benefits, and give everyone SNAP benefits.

[@eleSDSU]

Gareth is definitely on their way to a Hero of the Pod medal.

[@Mikey-xz4vn]

Whats better, "Hero of the Pod" or "Shock-Podcaster"

[@ClaudiaNW]

@@Mikey-xz4vn Podcast Stakhanovite

[@SolarTactician]

In awe of the mind that wanted to build a flat, straight grade through the middle of Pennsylvania, terrain primarily comprised of a series of very long ridges.

[@QueenOfSodor]

I miss the never-ending promise of an episode about the Tacoma Narrows Bridge at the end of a podcast, the Molasses Flood just doesn't feel the same... also mallard getting called into question is so funny, time for the T1s to take whats theirs

[@punishedsloth]

You know it's a good episode when I'm already furious during the God Damned News.

[@riinak7212]

The tornadoes in Tornado Alley are just as powerful as ones in the SE US. Ones that have annhiliated Moore, OK; Joplin, MO; & Greensburg, KS; have reached EF-5 intensity and storms like that happen regularly happen in April & May with a second peak somewhere in November. In fact, tornadoes have been reported in every state in the union along with several Canadian provinces (and the UK, Bangladesh, India, Eastern Europe and other places). They can be more aesthetically pleasing due to the flatness of the terrain, which makes for excellent storm chasing, but as you mentioned, plenty of tornadoes happen outside of Tornado Alley and can be just as strong. - source: am historical meteorologist.

[@crowwithaknife1312]

i was looking for this comment as soon as i heard that statement 🫡 of course i think part of it is that living in tornado alley comes with a sort of culture of awareness and preparedness for tornadoes, but also a lot of tornado alley is admittedly sparse. the aesthetic bit is also funny to me as someone who lives in DFW because most of our tornadoes are rain-wrapped and therefore invisible. NWS Fort Worth always has to remind people to not go outside looking for it because they won’t see anything anyway.

[@ClaudiaNW]

Arwen is not a "lesser-known Lord of the Rings character". Call me when we have Storm Glorfindel, Storm Haldir, Storm Beregond, Storm Quickbeam and Storm Old Fatty Lumpkin.

[@soniab78]

My son rode out the storm in Berwick upon Tweed... In a static caravan... The storm literally fucked up a holiday park a mile up the road, and the site he works on had loads of trees falling on caravans... The site had people sheltering in the club area, but he was like "meh, I grew up on Portland.. it's always windy there!"

[@darklessian]

The UK should expand their naming scheme to other markedly British franchises. Having an oncoming storm called Who would be a solid meme

[@stopredlight]

The air train loco artists impression, looks like a larger version of the Central London Railway Locomotives, built 1899-1900.

[@allisavercool227]

The horrible sinking feeling I had when you said rolling chair was not disappointed

[@joelnoble329]

I had to check that i wasn't on 1.5x speed - nice work Gareth

[@Q-anon]

Well merry Christmas everyone. A WTYP train episode.

[@eleSDSU]

@barnabyjoy but for Hanukkah we got the bonus episode :3

[@ClaudiaNW]

Merry Christmas and Yay Liam

[@flyingskier1913]

Delta Junction, AK doesn’t have any trains but it was -58F with the windchill the other day

[@onesob13]

the one time I experienced -58º F temps during a Minneapolis poplar vortex, i felt like my eyeballs were going to freeze. they were the only body part I had exposed. shit's too damn cold

[@CoffeeOnRails]

I appreciate how the most watched portion of the episode is Saftey Third and the SEVEN CIRCULAR SAWS

[@1prozzak6616]

@29:00 MVP moment; "if the train beside you derails pick up their cars and keep moving"

[@matthamm384]

Pretty sure those clintchfield loops are in NC. You can see them while on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Also, not too far from the Southern Loops. Also with Saluda being in NC near SC border, and CSX line near Wilmington, NC that's something like 100+ miles of no curves.

[@ayle1312]

The storm names for this season are: Arwen Barra Corrie Dudley Eunice Franklin Gladys Herman Imani Jack Kim Logan Méabh Nasim Olwen Pól Ruby Seán Tineke Vergil Willemien

[@FluridCube]

Oh good, so we'll finally get ready for Storm Franklin and it'll never come

[@maybemablemaples2144]

This is giving me fucking whiplash and making me laugh. Idk why.

[@JD-xt8cj]

Alice: “You only need one plan; you draw the line.” 😆

[@spamviking]

For those of you who, like me, were following along on google maps trying to find remnants of the Air Line, the cuts are still visible on google maps terrain overlay.

[@Man2quilla]

YES. I LOVE WHEN LIAM MAKES THREATS... IN JEST.

[@TheArcv2]

its a podcast about slides with engineering disasters

[@jeandrepeach]

Accurately describes the episode about slides a few weeks ago

[@Tysto]

Oh baby, this one hits close to home. I live just south of South Bend. The South Shore to Chicago goes thru there (right at the airport), so they could have just stopped there.

[@AP-cc5ym]

Wow the blast of nostalgia I got from hearing the name of Emerson Spartz, was not expecting that. He used to be married to Gaby Spartz who is/was a big name in Magic: the Gathering circles.

[@pacificostudios]

You forgot to mention that La Porte, IN was already one the route of the New York Central track from Chicago to New York City. In fact, the Amtrak Lakeshore Ltd. still runs through it today, from Chicago to New York.